Richard Nathaniel Wright (1908-1960)
Richard Nathaniel Wright, captured the American
people with his vivid portrayals of the plight of
black Americans in the modern world.
Drawing largely from his own experiences,
Wright "was perhaps the very first writer to give
the white community explanations and themes
that cut through its prejudices and forced it to
look at the reality of black life in America,"
according to biographer Robert Felgar.
Richard Wright was born on a plantation in Roxie, Mississippi, September 4, 1908 to Nathan Wright, an illiterate sharecropper and Ella Wright, a schoolteacher. Wright's stay in Roxie, however, was brief and at the age of three, Wright's father, Nathan, moved the family to Memphis, Tennessee where four years later he deserted them. Ella, Richard, and his younger brother Leon remained in Memphis trying to live on their mother's inadequate income. Expected to fend for themselves, Richard and Leon, often went hungry.
In 1914 Wright's mother Ella fell ill and he and his brother were temporarily sent to a settlement house. Eventually, Ella decided to move the family to Elaine, Arkansas, to live with her sister Maggie and her husband Silas Hoskins. In Arkansas, the family was terrorized by local whites who coveted Silas's property. In late 1916, Silas was murdered and the family fled to West Helena, Arkansas where they remained until 1919 when Ella suffered a stroke. Leon was sent to live with his Aunt Maggie, and Richard with his Uncle Clark. Richard lived with his Uncle only for a short time and was eventually sent to live with his Grandmother in Jackson, Mississippi.
In Jackson, Wright's education was greatly disrupted by family disorganization. Ella's illness resulted in frequent moves which made school attendance impossible. Wright attended two schools irregularly before enrolling, in 1923, at the Smith-Robinson School in Jackson. At Smith -Robinson, Wright received excellent grades and was made part-time supervisor of the class. Wright also showed his talent for writing by getting his first story "The Voodoo of Hell's Half Acre," published in The Southern Register, a local paper, in 1924. In 1925, Wright was named class valedictorian, but shortly after was forced to drop out because he needed to earn money for family expenses.
In 1925, Wright moved back to Memphis with plans to save money to eventually move North. While in Memphis, Wright read prolifically. He discovered The Atlantic Monthly and Harper's magazine, and was especially drawn to the writings of H. L. Mencken whose writings depicted the South as a living hell. After saving enough money, Wright moved to Chicago in 1927 where he secured a position as a postal clerk until the Great Depression hit in 1929. In 1931, Wright went on relief and began attending the meetings of the John Reed Club, a Communist literary organization. Wright officially joined the Communist party in 1933 and was named editor of the Daily Worker, a Communist party paper in New York. By 1938, Wright had completed his first novel Uncle Tom's Children. The novel was well received and established Wright as a premiere American writer both critically and financially . Uncle Tom's Children and the books that followed (see Chronology for a complete list) marked the beginning of a black literature that refused to compromise with many white expectations. [top]
Wright spent the remainder of his life writing numerous articles and books. His two most successful works both critically and popularly were Native Son and Black Boy. Native Son was published in 1940 and sold over 200,000 copies in less than a month and earned Wright comparisons to authors Theodore Dreiser and John Steinbeck. Moreover, he was awarded the NAACP's prestigious Spingarn Medal. Black Boy was published in 1943, sold over four hundred thousand copies and was also acclaimed by a number of noted individuals.
Wright was married twice. First in the late 1930's to Rose Dimah Meadman, a white woman he met in New York. Their marriage, however, lasted only a few months when they realized they had little in common. Wright married his second wife Ellen Poplar, with whom he had two daughters, in March of 1941.
The commercial success of Wright's books allowed him to travel widely and on 1947 he immigrated with his family to Paris where he remained for the rest of his life. In Paris, Wright continued to read prolifically and took particular interest in existentialism. He produced three novels during this period, but none were as well received as his early works. In 1960, Wright suffered a heart attack and died on November 28, at the age of fifty-two. He is buried in Paris.
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